The significant inscription found on an old key---“If I rest, I rust”---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

　　Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.

　　Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.

　　Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

　　假如休息太久，我就会生锈

　　在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意思深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。对那些懒惰而懊恼的人来说，这将是至理名言。甚至最为勤恳的人也以此作为警示：如果一个人有才能而不必，就像放弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些能力就会很快生锈，并终极无奈实现部署给本人的工作。

　　有些人想获得巨人所取得并保持的成绩，他们就必需一直应用本身才干，以便开启常识的大门，即那些通往人类尽力探究的各个范畴的大门，这些领域包含各种职业：迷信，艺术，文学，农业等。

　　勤恳使开启胜利宝库的钥匙坚持光明。如果休•米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时间用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为流芳百世的地质学家。有名数学家爱德蒙• 斯通如果空闲时起早贪黑，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发明开启数学之门的钥匙。如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活泼的大脑处于休息状况，而不是借助一串珠子盘算星星的地位，他就不会成为著名的地理学家。

　　劳动驯服所有。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是动摇的，不懈的，方向准确的逐日劳动。正如要想领有自在就要时刻保持警戒一样，要想取得巨大的，长久的成功，就必须坚定不移地努力。

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